Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 September 2000 Issue No. 500
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

	Egypt Elections Development Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Special Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters

When help hurts

By Nyier Abdou

It was not meant to be a sombre moment. But this month's United Nations Millennium Summit was nonetheless opened with the heads of world leaders bowed in silent tribute to three UN workers with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) murdered that day on the troubled Southeast Asian island of Timor. At a time when leaders and organisations had sought to dust off their shoulders and throw some self-righteous rhetoric around, the slayings were more than a poignant reminder of both the strife that the UN has taken as its mission to eradicate, and the inadequacy of its organs to keep up such a claim.

Recent weeks have seen an increasingly volatile situation brewing in refugee centres in Indonesian-controlled West Timor, where an estimated 300,000 refugees were forced to flee after pro-Jakarta militias went on a rampage in East Timor following its overwhelming vote for independence. The brutal deaths of the three UN staffers on 6 September are only the most high-profile deaths among an estimated 20 deaths in and around the refugee town of Atambua earlier this month that have proved the catalyst for fiery international protest against the inability -- or, some say, the refusal -- of the Indonesian government to disband the roving militias and hold them accountable for gross human right infractions after last year's vote.

An eternally humble Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, who was attending the Millennium Conference in New York at the time of the killings, expressed fears that the attacks were intended to coincide with his attendance at the summit. But Wahid, who faces a crippled economy and recent riots protesting the painfully slow prosecution of former President Suharto, insisted that Indonesia has the situation firmly in its control -- a claim that is clearly mistrusted by the UN Security Council.

A Security Council team is expected to arrive in Jakarta this week, but in a surprisingly defiant snub, Indonesian officials said that they would not meet the team, stating that doing so might be seen by opposition forces as a weakness in Wahid's government. The United States has in no uncertain terms expressed its deep concern with the handling of the Timor crisis, with US Defence Secretary William Cohen scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Sunday. Meanwhile, a US Navy and Marine humanitarian taskforce closed out a four-day operation in East Timor early this week. Also this week, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said that she was considering appointing an envoy to investigate missing persons in East Timor.

Since its days as a neglected Portuguese colony, East Timor has suffered from both its aggressors and its defenders. Timor has had a long history of changing hands among colonial powers and military insurgencies, beginning with virtual slavery under the Portuguese, to the eruption of civil strife among pro-independence groups, to its annexation by Indonesia in 1976. Though Indonesia's military rule was never recognised by the UN, the East Timorese cause finally burst onto the international scene with the awarding in 1996 of the Nobel Peace Prize to exiled activist José Ramos-Horta and Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo for their non-violent efforts to raise awareness for East Timor's right to self-determination. But it was not until the 1999 UN-sponsored vote -- and the wave of destruction that followed -- that international concern turned its attentions on the devastated remnants of this fragile nation.

The UN moved in and established the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), which is scheduled to transfer control of the country to an elected government by the end of 2001. Intended to be a model of UN rebuilding and repatriation, it looks as though the UN will again be forced to capitulate to foreign superpowers if it is to retain a presence in Timor. Within days of the killings, Security officials declared West Timor to be under "phase five" -- the "maximum state of alertness", according to the UNHCR. Over 450 UNHCR and UN-affiliated agency workers were evacuated from West Timor -- ironically, many of them East Timor, which is considered relatively safer. This is the first time UN staff has been forced to withdraw from West Timor.

The attack on the UNHCR office in Atambua is generally regarded to have been a response to the unexplained murder the day before of notorious militia leader Olivio Mendoza Moruk, who was named as likely to be tried by an Indonesian investigation into crimes against humanity in East Timor. A demonstration protesting the murder turned brutal and enraged militias headed for the UNHCR offices. The staff fled, but three were captured, killed, and burned in the street -- an image gruesome enough to make the knees of the Security Council sufficiently weak. "UNHCR workers cannot return to West Timor until there is a credible security guarantee, including real progress towards disarming and disbanding the militias," the council stated last Friday.

The UN exodus out of West Timor leaves behind some 125,000 refugees, who are reportedly only equipped with enough food to last them through the month and are entirely at the mercy of the militias. International calls for government intervention, though furious, are still only words -- and Indonesia has already made it clear that it resents indications that international bodies intend to involve themselves in the conflict. Rumours are rife that Wahid's control over the military is tenuous, and that the renegade militias are at least partially backed by the military. If Indonesia is unable to contain instability in West Timor, militias will likely spill over into UN-administered East Timor, as reports already indicate. Should the situation deteriorate as thus, the UN could be facing another international intervention fiasco -- undermanned humanitarian troops facing angry militants virtually with their hands tied behind their backs. Will Timor go the route of Somalia and Rwanda, or, more recently, Kosovo and Sierra Leone? The coming months will tell if East Timor will be the guinea pig on which the UN will test all its notions of stronger management, swift decisions, and firm resolve that UN leaders were waxing lyrical about earlier this month.

	weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg